Troubleshooting needed

[sage703]

Hi, we just started receiving the following error messages about 3
weeks ago. We don't get them all the time, or even on the same pages
necessarily, but we get them from time to time and our sql server
connection is slower in the last three weeks also. Our database is
remotely hosted, and the programmers are also offsite, so we are trying
to deal with this issue with our database server host, with no
knowledge of sql server. They say nothing has changed on the server,
but we haven't changed any of our front end files either, so we don't
know what the problem is. Here's 3 of the most common errors:

1. Microsoft Cursor Engine error '80004005'
Data provider or other service returned an E_FAIL status.
.../subview.asp, line 132

2. Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'
TDS buffer length too large
.../subview.asp, line 28

3. Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'
Unknown token received from SQL Server
.../members.asp, line 182
We have *no idea* what the above error messages refer to, or whether
this is something wrong with the server or the ASP pages mentioned. Any
help anyone could provide so we can understand the types of messages we
are getting would be nice.

Regards,
Sage

[Erland Sommarskog]

sage703 (oz********@gmail.com) writes:

Hi, we just started receiving the following error messages about 3
weeks ago. We don't get them all the time, or even on the same pages
necessarily, but we get them from time to time and our sql server
connection is slower in the last three weeks also. Our database is
remotely hosted, and the programmers are also offsite, so we are trying
to deal with this issue with our database server host, with no
knowledge of sql server. They say nothing has changed on the server,
but we haven't changed any of our front end files either, so we don't
know what the problem is. Here's 3 of the most common errors:

1. Microsoft Cursor Engine error '80004005'
Data provider or other service returned an E_FAIL status.
../subview.asp, line 132

2. Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'
TDS buffer length too large
../subview.asp, line 28

3. Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80004005'
Unknown token received from SQL Server
../members.asp, line 182
We have *no idea* what the above error messages refer to, or whether
this is something wrong with the server or the ASP pages mentioned. Any
help anyone could provide so we can understand the types of messages we
are getting would be nice.

Those errors are quite obscure indeed. The first is opaque and gives
virtually no clue at all, but Microsoft Cursor Engine makes an odd
appearance. You don't happen to have a SQL 6.5 server involved have you?

The other two messages does at least tells us that the conversation
between SQL Server and your client is not going on very well. TDS is
the protocol they speak with each other, and both messages indicates
that the client thinks that SQL Server violated the protocol.

There are four possible reasons, as I can see:

o Bug in SQLOLEDB, so that it fails to understand proper packets.
o Bug in SQL Server, so that it generates incorrect packets.
o Bug in SQL Server, which causes a crash on the SQL Server side,
and corrupt output sent to the client.
o Network problem, causing TCP/IP packets to be lost, so that
communication gets corrupted.

The first one, I will rank as very unlikely. The second, I also say
unlikely, but if you have some odd query, maybe you hit some unusual
situation. The third possibility is something that is known to
happen, but it rarely ends in oversized buffers.

So that leaves network problems as the most likely reason. Not the least
since you say that speed has gone down.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp